The development of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) cells with a magnetic tunnel junction has allowed a significant increase in the performances and operating mode of these MRAMs. Such MRAM cells are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,343. Such MRAM cell typically comprises a magnetic tunnel junction having a tunneling barrier layer between a first ferromagnetic layer and a second ferromagnetic layer. The magnetic tunnel junction is electrically connected at one end to a first current line and, to its other end, to a selection CMOS transistor. The MRAM cell may further comprise a second current line disposed orthogonal to the first current line.
During a write operation of the MRAM cell, the magnetization direction of the first magnetic layer is switched, for example, by applying an external magnetic field. In a thermally assisted (TA) write operation, switching the magnetization direction of the first magnetic layer is performed when the magnetic tunnel junction has been heated to or above a critical temperature. The magnetic tunnel junction is then cooled down below the critical temperature where the first magnetic layer magnetization is “frozen” in the written direction.
During a read operation, the magnetization direction of the second ferromagnetic layer can be compared with the written magnetization direction of the first ferromagnetic layer. This is usually performed by passing a read current through the magnetic tunnel junction such as to measure a resistance of the magnetic tunnel junction. A low measured junction resistance (or level state “0”) corresponds to the magnetization direction of the second ferromagnetic layer being oriented parallel to the magnetization direction of the first ferromagnetic layer. A high measured junction resistance (or level state “1”) corresponds to the magnetization direction of the second ferromagnetic layer being oriented antiparallel to the magnetization direction of the first ferromagnetic layer. The difference between the value of the high and low junction resistance, or the tunnel magnetoresistance, depends on the material composing the ferromagnetic layers and possibly on heat treatment performed on these ferromagnetic layers.
MRAM cells with a multilevel state write operation has also been proposed, allowing for writing more than the two level states “0” and “1” as described above. Such a MRAM cell with a multilevel state write operation is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,950,335. Here, the magnetization of the second ferromagnetic layer, or storage layer, can be oriented in any intermediate direction between the direction parallel and the direction antiparallel to the magnetization direction of the first ferromagnetic layer, or reference layer. Orienting the magnetization of the storage layer in the intermediate directions can be achieved by generating magnetic fields with appropriate relative intensity along the perpendicular directions of the first and second current line. However, such multilevel MRAM cells require at least two current lines increasing the complexity of the cell.